Environ sci midterm
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388 Terms
Environment
Surroundings where humans and other organisms live.
Earth's environmental spheres
Atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere.
Natural resources
Environmental components humans use, including forests, wildlife, water, minerals, and petroleum.
Anthropocentric view of resources
Resources have value based on human wants and needs.
Ecocentric/biocentric view of resources
Resources have value independently of humans.
Endocrine system
Glands and hormones regulating metabolism, growth, reproduction, sleep, mood, and other functions.
Tragedy of the commons
Publicly available resources are destroyed through overuse because of inadequate management.
Global environmental change
After about 12,000 years of environmental stability, climate and the environment are changing rapidly; human activity is the major driver, and recent changes are faster and larger than previously experienced.
Why global environmental change matters
It threatens society and ecosystems and requires rapid responses. Population growth and consumption drive economic growth and environmental change; values, expectations, and attitudes also influence change.
Central environmental-management question
How can human needs be met while protecting biophysical systems?
Environmental management
Managing human impacts and interactions with the environment to preserve natural resources.
Characteristics of environmental management
It evolves toward sustainable development; is interdisciplinary; combines science, social science, policy, and planning; meets or exceeds basic human needs; takes a long-term view across multiple spatial scales; addresses threats while creating opportunities; and emphasizes stewardship over exploitation.
Provisioning ecosystem goods and services
Food, raw materials, freshwater, and medicinal resources.
Regulating ecosystem services
Climate regulation, water and air purification, pollination, and flood/storm mitigation.
Cultural ecosystem services
Aesthetic landscapes, spiritual and mental health, cultural identity, recreation, and ecotourism.
Supporting ecosystem services
Soil formation, photosynthesis, nutrient cycling, and water cycling.
Why natural resources need governance
Extraction and use can pollute air, land, and water and create health risks. Rural economies often depend on resource industries, so economic benefits must be balanced against social and environmental costs.
Why environmental problems lack one solution
Solutions involve alternatives, trade-offs, and challenges involving ethics, efficiency, equity, liberty, uncertainty, and evaluation.
Environmental decision-making dilemmas
Ethics asks what should be conserved; efficiency asks how much environmental damage is acceptable; equity asks who benefits and pays; liberty asks how much people should be restricted; uncertainty asks how to act without adequate information; evaluation asks how to compare impacts.
Other complications in environmental decisions
Prejudice, misconceptions, personal gain, powerful stakeholders, and sovereignty or strategic interests can affect decisions, especially transboundary problems. Managers must balance stakeholder interests with environmental protection.
Science-based resource management guidelines
Focus science on key issues and communicate it in policy-relevant form; use scientific information to clarify issues, identify management options, and estimate consequences; communicate findings clearly and simply to all participants; evaluate whether the final decision matches the science; avoid advocating a particular solution before all options are presented.
Historical environmental-impact attitudes
Environmental impacts were often given little consideration. Common attitudes included "head-in-the-sand" and "dilution is the solution."
Cuyahoga River history
The river was extremely polluted by oil and debris, had low oxygen and little or no animal life, and experienced more than 13 fires before 1969.
Importance of the Cuyahoga River fires
They demonstrated environmental-management failure, increased public awareness of pollution and environmental impacts, and helped lead to stronger environmental and public-health laws.
Sydney Tar Ponds origin and scale
About 100 years of steel and coke production created over 700,000 tonnes of contaminated soil and sediment. The site was called Canada's worst contaminated site.
Sydney Tar Ponds economic/environmental trade-off
The steel industry provided jobs and prosperity but left major environmental and health problems after closure.
Sydney Tar Ponds pollution sources
Atmospheric deposition of coking by-products; industrial runoff containing PCBs, PAHs, and metals; garbage-dump leachate; raw sewage; and other industrial contaminants.
Sydney Tar Ponds contamination
The polluted area covered 31 hectares; toxic sludge contained heavy metals, PAHs, and PCBs.
PCBs
Endocrine disruptors and neurotoxins that bioaccumulate.
Sydney Tar Ponds health effects
Contaminants were associated with cancer, birth defects, neurological and developmental problems, and other health effects. Residents had elevated health problems and reduced life expectancy, although other causes were debated.
Sydney Tar Ponds cleanup
Sludge was stabilized, solidified, and contained rather than incinerated. Cleanup cost about $400 million, was completed in 2014, and the site was partly converted to recreational areas.
Lessons from environmental disasters
Poor practices and inattention create problems; problems gain attention when impossible to ignore; controversy, denial, and inaction often follow; cooperation, expertise, and resources can produce win-win solutions.
Easter Island parallel to modern environmental problems
Population growth, resource depletion, invasive species, and disease.
Tribal Era
Pre-1600: Indigenous hunter-gatherers generally had low environmental impact.
Frontier Era
1607–1890: European settlement led to forest clearing, Indigenous displacement, and resource exploitation. Wilderness was viewed as something to conquer or manage for humans ("command and control"), and resources were seen as essentially unlimited.
Industrial Revolution I
Increased mining, fossil-fuel use, land clearing, and pollution.
Early conservation era
1832–1890: resource depletion became concerning and belief grew that wilderness should be protected for future generations.
Post-Frontier Era
1890–1960: the frontier ended and the United States became highly industrialized and urbanized.
Green Revolution
1940s–1960s: increased food production, machinery, fossil-fuel use, fertilizers, and pesticides; global population reached about 3 billion.
Modern environmental movement
From the 1960s onward, the movement gained momentum. Rachel Carson's work contributed to DDT restrictions and environmental activism. Goals included conservation, wildlife protection, and improved air, water, and soil.
Major environmental milestones of the 1970s
First Earth Day: April 22, 1970; US EPA formed in 1970; Stockholm UN Earth Summit in 1972; Endangered Species Act in 1973. The environmental movement became global.
Major events of the 1980s
Anti-environmental groups challenged regulations and some protections weakened. Bhopal (1984) involved toxic gas and 15,000+ deaths; Chernobyl (1986) was a nuclear disaster with thousands of deaths; Montreal Protocol (1987) reduced CFC emissions; IPCC formed in 1988; Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in 1989.
Clean Air Act revisions
US revisions helped reduce acid precipitation in Canada.
Major global environmental milestones since 1990
Rio Earth Summit in 1992; Kyoto Protocol in 1997 with greenhouse-gas reduction commitments; Paris Agreement in 2015, aiming to keep warming below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
Canada and the Kyoto Protocol
Prime Minister Chrétien ratified Kyoto in 2002 with a target of emissions 6% below 1990 levels by 2012. Harper withdrew Canada in 2012 and weakened environmental protections.
Canadian climate policy under Trudeau and Carney
Trudeau (2015–2025) was associated with climate policy and pipeline controversies. Carney (2025–present): course notes leave this unspecified.
Aldo Leopold
Wrote A Sand County Almanac (1949), considered one of the most important environmental books. He argued humans have an ethical responsibility to be good stewards of the land.
Major causes of environmental problems
population growth, over consumption, and pollution
Environmental-development conundrums
What balance should exist between economic development and environmental protection? How should environmental, social, and economic interests be balanced?
Human-caused environmental changes
Land conversion; spread of crops and grass species; species introductions; pollution; and climate change. Humans can alter global biogeochemical cycles. Impacts vary by socioeconomic and environmental context, and causes and impacts can occur far apart.
Sustainable development
Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Three pillars of sustainable development
social, ecological, economic
sections of ecosystem goods and services
provisioning, regulating, cultural, supporting